Grilled Chicken Rigatoni Florentine

Yes, this post is late today... you gotta problem with that?


You know what, that's not fair.  I've been watching a lot of 'Mob Wives' on VH1 and it leads me to believe I'm a tough cookie. WANNA FIGHT ABOUT IT?


I made another Pinterest recipe.  It was pretty good, but I think I could have shortened the ingredient list and saved some time if I changed it up a bit.  At any rate, you can find the original pin here.  I changed up the ingredients from the original pin, so here goes:


2 Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
3/4  lb Dry rigatoni
8 oz Frozen spinach, thawed
8 oz Heavy whipping cream
2 cups Milk, 2%
4 oz Sour cream
1 cup Italian five-cheese blend (Kraft makes this, feel free to substitute your favorite Italian cheeses here)
1 Tbsp Butter, unsalted
1 Tbsp Canola or vegetable oil
1 Tbsp All-purpose flour
1 Tbsp Garlic, minced
1 tsp Garlic salt
1 tsp Kosher salt


Grill the chicken and set it aside... after you grill something, you let it sit for a few minutes for the juices to redistribute.  I learned that watching the Food Network.

Do you see those juices redistributing? Oh, they're doing it, alright.

The next step in the recipe is a bit too... cumbersome for my tastes.  I feel like I could have made a simple Alfredo sauce in place of part of this and it would have tasted the same.  I didn't really think about it beforehand though, so I followed the pinned recipe and made it like this:

Boil the pasta until it's just shy of al dente.  Drain it in a colander and add the thawed spinach.  Toss to mix the pasta and the spinach.  In a saucepan, add the butter and the oil and heat on medium until the butter is melted.  Add the flour and whisk it... this is called 'making a roux'. I tell you this because I had never known there was a term for this until a few years ago and I want to educate you... because I love you.  Add the cream to the pan and bring it to a boil, stirring as you go.  Add the milk, salt and garlic, still whisking... then add the cheese and mix until the cheese is gooey and yummy.

Once that's done, add the pasta/spinach mix and toss it a bit.  Cut up the chicken and throw that in the mix too... everybody's in the pool.

Put it in a 9 x 13 inch pan and bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.


It's pretty good... but a simple alfredo would have been easier and I think it would have tasted just as good.  I'll make this again and it will take me a lot less time if I do that.  At any rate, I cleaned my plate.  'Cause I'm a good girl.